Introductory text

LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Read the essay by Anne Proctor (a student from Britain, aged 17).

Secondary schools in Britain have to offer at least one foreign language on the curriculum. I think this is because we need to communicate better with our neighbours in Europe and because people travel a lot these days. I’m always impressed when I hear foreign politicians like the German Chancellor speaking English or the Russian President speaking German.

It is often said that British people are not good at learning foreign languages. Perhaps we have become lazy because we know that people throughout the world learn English. If this is true, we are missing a great opportunity.

I learn French at school but I don’t feel confident about speaking it. If I could spend some time in France, I would soon become more fluent. French grammar is certainly difficult, but there are not too many exceptions to the rules.

If I could, I’d like to learn Spanish and Russian. Spanish would help me to get a job in the tourist industry, as so many British people go on holiday to Spain. I would also like to expand my knowledge of Spanish customs and traditions, and to understand the Spanish mentality.

Russian attracts me because the language sounds so beautiful and I would really love to be able to read Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy in the original. I also think it would be really beneficial to understanding between our two countries if more of us spoke Russian.

To sum up, I believe that knowledge of foreign languages helps to make a person educated and well rounded. It is not only the language that counts, but also the fact that it is a way of getting to know different cultures. You can’t broaden your mind if you see the world only from the perspective of your own culture.

Ex. 1

Answer the following questions.

1. Why is it important to learn at least one foreign language?

2. Is it necessary for politicians to speak a foreign language?

3. Why is it believed that British people are not good at learning foreign languages?

4. Is a trip to France possible for the author now? How do you know?

5. Is a foreign language grammar always difficult?

6. What are the reasons for the author for learning Spanish?

7. What attracts her in the Russian language?

8. What qualities can a person gain learning foreign languages?

TOPICAL VOCABULARY

I. NOUNS. 1. Classroom notions: an absentee, an article, an answer, a beginning, a bell, a consonant, a date, a dental, a dialogue, a dot, an end, a fall, a five, a four, a fullstop, Grammar, a group, intonation, knowledge, a language, the English (German) language, a lesson, a letter, a line, a link-verb, the linking “r”, a laboratory (lab), a list (of students), a margin, a mark for smth., a minus, a mistake, a member, a note, a novel, a numeral, a part, a passage, a pause, a phoneme, a plus, a poem, a pupil, a question, a quiz, a record, a recording, a rise, a (reading) rule, rules of reading, a seat, a sense-group, a sentence, a sound, speech, spelling, a spelling dictation, a statement, a story, a student, a study, a syllable, a task, a test (in Grammar), test-reading, a text, a theme, a three, translation, a tone, a tune, a topic, a verse, a vowel, work.

2. General furniture, objects and equipment: a bag, a belt, a book, a booth, a chair, a college, chalk, a chalkboard (a blackboard), a card, a class, a copier, a desk, a drawing pin, a duster, an examination card, an exercise-book, a group register, a head-phone (an ear-phone), a hole punch, a magazine, a map, a microphone, a notice-board, a paper clip, a pencil-box, a PC (personal computer), a photocopier, a pointer, a record-player, a register, a shelf, a stapler, scissors, a sellotape, a stool, a (student’s) record book, a test-paper, a textbook, a time-table.

3. General writing equipment: a ball-point pen, a biro, an exercise book, glue, a notebook, a pad, paper, a ruler, a pencil, a pencil sharpener, a rubber (an eraser).

4. Other nouns: a café, a college, a hostel, an institute, a middle, an office, a school, a stop, a window, a window-sill.

II. ADJECTIVES: active, alike, alveolar, attentive, back, bad, boastful, bright, broad, broken, busy, calm, cardinal, Chuvash, clean, clever, closed, cold, cool, complete, convenient, correct, countable, definite, dental, difficult, different, dirty, dishonest, distinct, double, early, easy, English, even, excellent, expensive, fair, faithful, fast, favourite, fine, fluent, foolish, foreign, free, French, fresh, front, funny, good-looking, grammar, grammatical, great, greedy, handsome, hard, high, ill, important, inattentive, incomplete, inconvenient, indefinite, indifferent, indistinct, industrious, interesting, just, kind, late, lazy, left, lexical, light, lively, lovely, loose, low, mental, merry, modern, modest, musical, narrow, nasal, negative, new, nice, noble, odd, old-fashioned, ordinal, own, phonetic, pleasant, pretty, right, quick, Russian, sad, safe, salty, the same, satisfactory, shallow, sick, silly, simple, slow, small, soft, steady, special, straight, strange, uncountable, unknown, useful, useless, warm, wide, well-known, wise, wrong, young.

III. VEBS AND VERBAL COLLOCATIONS: add (smth. to smth.), be, be absent from, be away from, be busy (with smth.), be busy doing smth., be divided by…, be eager to do smth., be fond of (doing) smth., be in danger, be in disorder, be full of smth., be in order (out of order), be made of smth., be on a list, believe, be missing, be multiplied by…, be on page…, be sorry for…, be on duty, be over, be present at, be safe, boast of, call out, can, chat away, check (up), clean, close, come (home), count from… to, describe, dictate, divide (into), do, enjoy smth., explain smth. to smb., fetch smth., fiddle with smth., get ready for smth. (to do smth.), give smb smth., go (home), go to one’s seat (place), go for a walk, guess, have, to have smth. on, help smb (wwith, in smth.), imitate, intone, keep on doing smth., know, learn smth. (by heart), let, listen to…, (dis)like, live, look at smth., smb. (have a look at), make a (great) noise, make up a dialogue (examples, stories, statements, situations), make smb. do smth., meet, open… at page…, multiply, pass smth. to smb., put, put one’s hand up, put smth. on, read, recite (a poem, a rhyme), remember, repeat, report, retell, review, send, sit, sit down, sit still, sit straight, show smb. smth., speak to (with) smb., spell (misspell), stand (up), stop doing smth., study, subtract smth. from smth., switch smth. on (off), take (away), take smth. off, tell smb. about smth., thank smb. for smth., transcribe, translate from… into…, underline, understand, wait (till), wet, write down (put down), work, write (read, speak) English, Chuvash.